“Are we about to be drawn back into a conflict in Iraq?” Smith asked. “The same people who 12 years ago told us this will be quick, this will be easy, this will be inexpensive, they will see us as liberators, it’s the right thing to do, are now telling us: It’s the right thing to do. What’s the endgame? Who’s thought this through?”

Was just catching up while listening to the live feed of the Cannon Ball celebration and I just had to bring this here from a post yesterday by jojothecat:

“I say that there be a “WAR” tax on millionaires before we send one piece of equipment or one person. No profiteering and NO contractors will be paid until the war is OVER.”

Brilliant jojothecat!
I had to endorse this idea! Both pieces: extra tax on millionaires to pay for wars would mean next to none would be authorized and also if no one in the MIC gets paid until it’s over, any war started would not be indefinite – in and out!

Hi MadameSoph! Thank you for bringing my comment forward. I saw your response to me and was hoping to see you here again.

In order to stop this media rush to wars we need to invoke an automatic “War Tax” and Contractors get paid once the war is over. Also if there is a requirement that every healthy graduating senior from high school and college must spend one year in service of their country (male or female) there would be none of this call for war. There is no special treatment for the privileged or for religion. Mormons and Amish have to go too.

Today, David Brooks offered his opinion on Iraq, 2014. The guts are in the final paragraph, where he called for: “a more forward-leaning American posture around the world, an awareness that sometimes a U.S.-created vacuum can be ruinous. The president says his doctrine is don’t do stupid stuff. Sometimes withdrawal is the stupidest thing of all.”

Hmmmmm. You know what. I don’t think so. The stupidest thing of all is invading a country that hadn’t attacked us, posed no real threat to us, had no weapons capable of reaching us, or any capability to produce such weapons for the foreseeable future.

To fulfill the Poniewozik Rule, let’s see what Mr. Brooks was saying about the Iraq war before George W. Bush gave the order to invade:

The president has remained resolute. Momentum to liberate Iraq continues to build. The situation has clarified, and history will allow clear judgments about which leaders and which institutions were up to the challenge posed by Saddam and which were not.

In other words, David Brooks was on board. Who wasn’t, might we ask? Barack Obama. Remember what the current president said, at the same time Brooks was leading the charge in favor of invasion?

I know that an invasion of Iraq without a clear rationale and without strong international support will only fan the flames of the Middle East, and encourage the worst, rather than best, impulses of the Arab world, and strengthen the recruitment arm of al-Qaida. I am not opposed to all wars. I’m opposed to dumb wars.

“American Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, while held prisoner in Afghanistan, was locked in solitary confinement for two straight years and did not see another human face for that entire time, senior military sources with knowledge of his ‘reintegration process’ told Fox News.”

“Officials said Bergdahl, during that period, only talked to his captors through the wall of a six-foot-by-six-foot metal box, which he was kept in.”

After watching all of the preliminary action at the pow-wow for more than an hour waiting for PBO and Michelle, the moment they came the door bell rang and I missed most of it. This remodeling is seriously getting in the way of my TOD time.

This is SHAMEFUL. There was no reason that MSNBC or CNN could not carry the President’s visit. Instead of showing hours and hours of John McCain and Mitt Romney’s ugly mugs on tv, pushing their cynical, narcissistic and agenda-driven arguments for more war, these networks could have spared a couple hours to at least show the welcome ceremony, receiving officials’ remarks and carry the President’s speech.

Then 2 weeks from now, they’ll be busy spreading lies about the events of today. Utterly shameful – this US media.